Orioles stumble against Angels as AL wild card race heats up

Angels sixth. Dav. Murphy singled to left.

Chris Iannetta’s two-run double keyed a three-run sixth inning as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Orioles 8-4 on Friday night. Matt Weiters and Jonathan Schoop each hit home runs and Manny Machado had three hits as the Orioles scored four runs on 12 hits.

David Murphy, Johnny Giavotella and David DeJesus all drove in runs for the Angels, but Iannetta boosted his average to.

Jimenez (8-7, 4.04 ERA) is 1-4 in his last six starts and has been shelled in the last four, allowing a.309/.378/.605 slash line while serving up six homers in 18 2-3 innings.

Mike Trout broke out of a mini-slump in the series opener and aims for another productive contest when the Los Angeles Angels host the Baltimore Orioles in Saturday’s second contest of a three-game set.

Trout is also the fifth player in Major League Baseball history to record 125+ doubles, 25+ triples, and 100+ home runs before turning 24, joining Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Aaron. Salas (2-1) pitched only one-third of an inning and struck out the only batter he faced.

Gausman (2-3) couldn’t hold the lead, allowing a two-run, two-out double to Chris Iannetta.

That won’t happen by Sunday now for the Orioles, not after Friday’s 8-4 thumping by the AL Wild Card leading Angels (58-50).

22 teams could have drafted Trout before the Angels did, as Stephen Strasburg, Dustin Ackley, Zach Wheeler, Mike Leake, Shelby Miller, A. J Pollock and Drew Storen all heard their names called before Trout did in 2009.

After a great start to his career with the Angels, Andrew Heaney has seen a slight pause in his success. He tossed 5 2/3 innings and gave up four earned runs on 10 hits.

“I’m not happy with how I threw”, Heaney said.

This is nearly like Halosphere holiday, because like the total good guy that he is, we all know that he’lll give us a present or two in the form of a home run and maybe a diving catch, a win, etc. Getting to watch him play nearly every day is a gift to be cherished itself, yet on HIS birthday, he makes sure WE are feeling like we’re on top of the world.

THE UGLY: Nolan Reimold and Adam Jones both made outs on the bases in the third inning.

Orioles fourth. C.Davis singled to right. One batter later, Parra scored on Jones’ deep fly off the center field wall.

The Angels tied it again as Gausman walked Trout and Albert Pujols to lead off the bottom of the fourth.